MUSIC VIDEO - NASTYISH - INTERTEXTUALITY

How do music videos use intertextuality?

Refer to one of the music videos you have studied in your answer [10]

This one is only nasty because it forces you to write about Titanium

Since the very earliest music videos presented on MTV, the form has been well known for its postmodern sensibilities. Most music videos presuppose a self-aware and increasingly media savvy audience who find pleasure in the way they connect with the artist through shared socio-political values, but also through shared cultural understanding. The use of intertextuality in David Guetta’s Titanium functions in this way, with intertextual references used to construct a variety of different forms of connection to fans of the artist.

A generic convention of music videos to imply that artists share their audience’s appreciation of other artforms, most commonly involving sophisticated filmic narratives or high production values.  Titanium is very obviously using this generic convention by intertextually referencing the sci-fi genre as a whole, but also acknowledging the growing nostalgia for 1980s science fiction. The video implies shared experience and shared enjoyment of artforms with which the target audience would be familiar. Moreover, the use of Steadicam shots, the dolly zoom during the bicycle scene, the carefully constructed mise en scene intended to capture the 1980s diegesis (the two joggers are an excellent example of this) and of course the final pyrotechnic effect are all examples of high productions values. While this clearly demonstrates a shared appreciation of cinema, it also arguably demonstrates an appreciation of the fan base by virtue of the clear effort used to construct the central ideas within the video.

A common convention used in music videos is the use of intertextuality in a way that promotes value alignment with the artist. We might argue that the entire narrative forms a socio-political message about the way that young people are misunderstood by society and treated as outsiders. The intertextual references to the science fiction genre constructs a diegesis that features a shadowy government body that are persecuting a teen boy who is coming into his powers. This trope is a common device in science fiction and symbolises the dangerous nature of adolescents becoming capable and rebellious and of the way that the adult world rejects the possibilities that they entail. This is perfectly exemplified in the frightened facial expression of the teacher and the shadowy paramilitary costumed figures seen chasing the young boy in the forest. Here then the video is arguably promoting value alignment, either with the young adolescent audience who feel supressed by the adult world, or with older listeners familiar with that feeling having experienced it themselves.

Another way that producers promote alignment with the audience is through the use of avatars of the audience in the form of idealised representations of the audience seen interacting with the artist (think the young woman on a date with Michael Jackson in Thriller). Clearly, this is not possible in this music video as there is no representation of the artist. However, a similar processes happens with the inclusion of intertextual references that only ‘super fans’ are likely to notice. The first is a hand drawn poster featured on the school wall, which eagle eyed fans would notice, especially upon multiple viewings. A second is another intertextual reference to the Italian superhero movie ‘Superargo and the faceless giants,’ which can be seen as a film poster on the wall of the child’s living room. Superfans of Guetta will be aware that he is a fan of Italian pulp movies and will feel closer to the artist as they have exclusive or privileged insight as a result of this intertextual easter egg. The shared cultural reference will promote deeper connection with the artist.